Internal Affairs — Chapter 4

Jars kept the Land Rover pointed northwest, heading to Cooperstown where he’d spend the night before continuing on in the morning after breakfast. If he was still alive. He’d opted for a leisurely, scenic drive along State Route 28, one that would carry him from Highland to Cooperstown, sending him through the picturesque Catskills where the mountains were gearing up for their annual show with a sporadic display of early color as some of the green leaves gave way to browns, yellows and smatterings of red. It would have been almost festive if not for the gray of an overcast sky which had so quickly displaced the earlier sunshine. The dreariness of it was an all too common sight in Jars’ opinion. He supposed if upstate New York wanted the sort of clear, sunny days prevalent in places like Arizona they’d have to build a dome over Lake Ontario.

He didn’t doubt the human race would give it a try someday if they lasted that long. Whatever might be imagined could and would, sooner or later, be pursued. It just took patience and persistence. Granted, dreams sometimes had to be handed over to another generation when technology and the empowerment it offered lagged behind. But inevitably, what once seemed impossible came within reach. Give people enough time and they could do anything they put their minds to. That is, if they didn’t wipe themselves out somewhere along the way.

As far as Jars could see, the twin demons of greed and power were constantly dogging society. Even Synapzius had felt the pressure. It was part of what bothered him. It were as if he could see the company’s path as it proudly sauntered into the future. He’d had big dreams but found that big dreams took big money to propel them to realization. That kind of money meant opening up Synapzius to public investment. Only public investment wasn’t that public. Not really. Sure, anyone with money could buy shares of a company’s stock. But the kind of money it took to influence an enterprise was a luxury limited to maybe one percent of the people inhabiting the planet. That one percent held the world’s rudder in their hands and planet Earth sailed in the direction they alone decided. A direction Jars couldn’t get behind. One in which power, profit and control were everything.

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